"But"--She
paused, there. "Do you know how honourably, how nobly, he has behaved?"
she abruptly resumed. "He has insured his life: he has burdened himself
with the payment of a large sum of money every year. And all for me, if
I am so unfortunate (which God forbid!) as to survive him. When a large
share in the newspaper was for sale, do you think I could be ungrateful
enough to let him lose the chance of making our fortune, when the
profits begin to come in? I insisted on advancing the money--we almost
quarrelled about it--but, you know how sweet he is. I said: 'Don't
distress me'; and the dearest of men let me have my own way."
Mountjoy listened in silence. To have expressed what he felt would have
been only to mortify and offend Iris. Old habit (as he had said) had
made the idea of devoting himself to her interests the uppermost idea
in his mind. He asked if the money had all been spent. Hearing that
some of it was still left, he resolved on making the attempt to secure
the remains of her fortune to herself.
"Tell me," he said, "have you ever heard of such a thing as buying an
annuity?"
She knew nothing about it. He carefully explained the method by which a
moderate sum of money might be made to purchase a sufficient income for
life.
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